Leyya Tawil + Jeff Surak
​Leyya Mona Tawil is an artist working with dance and music practices. She is a Syrian-Palestinian-American engaged in the world as such. Tawil is the director of ELIXIR and TAC: Temescal Art Center. Her work has been presented in 16 countries and throughout the states. Her approach to experimental performance is based on conceptual scoring and location-based variables. Her work has been discussed and reviewed in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal,American Theatre, NEA Art Talks, ​Movement Research’s Critical Correspondence, and the PAJ: Journal of Performance and Art. She was a Columnist-in-Residence for SF MOMA’s Open Space, and published an essay on Arab Experimentalism for Detroit Research Journal (Vol 2).http://www.danceelixirlive.org

TL0741 (NoVA)http://www.tl0741.comhttps://www.facebook.com/TL0741/
Pat Gillis (b. 1965, USA) began performing as TL0741 in 2005. Discovering electronic music in adolescence, he found the instrumentation and techniques had inherent possibilities deserving exploration on their own merits, free of service to the conventions of Bach’s time through those of the British Invasion and the many permutations between and following. Gesture, timbral novelty, pacing, atmosphere and dynamics are given primacy over musical expectations. Irrespective, musical qualities are evident in the results.

Juliana Ponguta Forero and Ken Manheimer, dancers, Daniel Barbiero, double bass.
Contemporary dancer, teacher and dance movement therapist, Juliana Ponguta Forero was born in Colombia and currently lives in the Washington DC area where she is a member of the Nancy Havlik Dance Group. Trained in classic, modern and contemporary dance in Mexico, Perú and Argentina, she started dancing Colombian folk dances and tango in her youth: since then, she has been wondering about movement, creativity and expressivity. More recent work has led her into a variety of techniques such as Yoga, Judo, Contact Improvisation and Dance Movement Therapy among others. She has guided contemporary dance classes, improvisation, and movement research workshops in Argentina, Perú, Colombia and Brazil. She deeply enjoys sharing her knowledge and experiences, hoping to bring new and rich experiences for all. At present she is researching the relationship between body and instinct, body intelligence and the difference between creativity and imagination in trying to develop body language.

For Ken Mannheimer, improvised collaborative dance is an antidote to the static of daily life. His ongoing practice provides what has come to be a precious opportunity to play for the sake of play, rather than for competition or work or glamor or whatever ulterior motives. Still, he’s studied with central teachers (including extensively with Nancy Stark Smith and Susan Schell, among many others), in addition to practicing regularly with other zealous folk at the DC CI jam (http://dccontactimprov.net). Ken coordinates that jam, and helps to organize the Spring East Coast Jam (https://eastcoastjam.com), and has taught many small and medium scale classes and workshops.

Daniel Barbiero (1958, New Haven CT) is a double bassist with an interest in gestural, modular and sound-based composition and improvisation in acoustic and electro-acoustic environments. He frequently works with improvisational dancers and writes regularly on music and related subjects.http://danielbarbiero.wordpress.com